EVM Glitches Reported from Several Areas in Delhi

New Delhi: Complaints about malfunctioning EVMs poured in from several places in the national capital on Sunday where voting is underway. Adarsh Gupta, a resident of Matia Mahal area, claimed that at polling booths 84, 85 and 86, electronic voting machines (EVMs) were not working in the morning.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)'s Malviya Nagar MLA Somnath Bharti alleged that EVMs at booths 116, 117 and 122 were not functioning.

"EVM in booth 132, Hauzrani is showing 50 votes without anyone casting any vote in the machine n EVMs at booths 116,117, 122 in Malviya nagar not functioning," Bharti wrote on Twitter.

Delhi Chief Electoral Officer Ranbir Singh said 5.5% EVMs were replaced in the morning, adding that problems in EVMs were reported from Chandni Chowk and West Delhi.

"Mock polls happened in the morning and where machines were found defective, they were replaced. As much as 5.5% EVMs were replaced during morning hours and that might have caused the delay in start of polling," Singh said.

A senior police officer, posted at Nirman Bhawan polling booth, said there was a complaint about EVM malfunctioning which was replaced with another one.

"There was connection error between the control unit and ballot unit at Nirman Bhawan. That is why control unit, ballot unit and VVPAT of EVM had to be replaced," said an official of the poll body. An EVM consists of a ballot unit, a control unit and a VVPAT.

At a press conference on Friday, Delhi CEO SIngh said that 25,146 ballot units, 13,819 control units and 13,819 VVPATs were to be used for the polls. The Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) system enables an EVM to record each vote cast by generating a slip.

Mudit Agarwal, son of the Congress's Chandni Chowk candidate JP Agarwal, alleged that EVMs malfunctioned at a few booths in Matia Mahal and Ballimaran assembly segments.

According to a police officer, they received information about an EVM not working at Begum Pur in Rohini but the issue was addressed.

The AAP's Tilak Nagar MLA Jarnail Singh alleged that EVMs at polling booth number 27 were not working in the morning.

"At Prithivi Park in Tilak Nagar assembly segment, EVMs had not been working since 7am at polling booth 27. It is the area where AAP has a substantial vote bank," Jarnail Singh said.

He said the Election Commission claimed that faulty EVMs were changed within 10 minutes, but at ground level, it's a different story. Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said voters were unable to find if their votes were actually recorded by the machines in Najafgarh constituency.

"Voters unable to find their votes at polling booths. It is true that on large scale votes have been deleted. All these are residents of Jai Vihar I, Najafgarh," he wrote on Twitter.

Over 1.43 crore people in Delhi are eligible to vote in this election which will decide the fate of 164 candidates, of which 18 are women. There are 43 independent candidates.

While 2,54,723 voters are in the age group of 18 and 19, there are 40,532 electorate with disability who would be provided pick-up and drop facilities, officials had said. The counting of votes will take place on May 23.